Upload File In Copilot Studio (Generative Orchestration Mode)

Imported reference from Matthew Devaney's blog for learning purposes. Original: https://www.matthewdevaney.com/upload-file-in-copilot-studio-generative-orchestration-mode/. Author: Matthew Devaney.

Upload File In Copilot Studio (Generative Orchestration Mode) Posted by - Matthew Devaney on - July 20, 2025 5 Comments

You can upload a file in Copilot Studio without prompting the User without using a question node. The User can simply drop a file into the chat window, the Agent will detect the file and then process it. This is made possible by creating a topic that triggers when an activity is performed and checking the Attachments table system variable for files. Table of Contents Introduction: The File Upload Agent

Add A New Topic To The Copilot Studio Agent

Trigger The Topic When A File Is Uploaded In Chat

Get The Filename And Extension For The Uploaded File

Create A New File In OneDrive/SharePoint

Test The File Upload In Generative Orchestration Mode Introduction: The File Upload Agent

A Copilot Studio Agent accepts a file upload from the User in the chat window at anytime. The Agent does not use a question node , nor is it inside a topic before the file is added by the User.

The User’s uploaded file appears in OneDrive/SharePoint.

Add A New Topic To The Copilot Studio Agent

Open Copilot Studio and create a new Agent named File Upload Agent (Generative) . Use this text in the Agent description.

The Agent will receive a file from the user in the chat window, detect it using Generative Orchestration and perform actions on it.

Then go to the Topics tab and add a new Topic from blank named Upload A File To Copilot Studio (Teams) .

Trigger The Topic When A File Is Uploaded In Chat

We want to trigger the topic when a file is uploaded to the chat window. Not when the Agent detects a trigger phrase. To do this, change the trigger type to when an activity occurs .

Then we add a condition to the trigger to specifically detect when a file is uploaded. Open the On Activity properties and change the condition type to formula .

Use this formula as the conidtion. It checks the Attachments table in the System variable to see if it is empty. When the attachments table has a file, it returns true and when there is no file it returns false . Not ( IsEmpty ( System .Activity .Attachments ) Code language: CSS ( css )

Get The Filename And Extension For The Uploaded File

The Agent should communicate to the user that it is going to perform a file upload to let them know what it is doing. Add a message node with the text show below.

Use this formula to get the filename and extension. The First function is necessary because a User can potentially upload more than a single file, but in this simple example we only want to use one. To learn how perform addition validation to ensure there are not multiple files uploaded read this tutorial . First ( System .Activity .Attachments ) .Name Code language: CSS ( css )

Create A New File In OneDrive/SharePoint

We want the Agent to upload a file to OneDrive/SharePoint. Both connectors work in a similar way. For this example, we will use the Create File – OneDrive for Business connector. Then setup the input parameters as follows: Folder Path: (your folder path)

File Name: First(System.Activity.Attachments).Name

File Content: First(System.Activity.Attachments).Content Send A Message To The User

After the file is uploaded we want to send a message to let the User know it was successful. Add a message node with the message “File successfully uploaded to the path {CreateFile.Path}”.

Test The File Upload In Generative Orchestration Mode

We are done. Save the topic. Publish the Agent. And upload a file to the chat window.

The Copilot Studio Agent will upload the file to OneDrive. Did You Enjoy This Article? 😺

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